Barry Kamins may be a name partner in a large law firm, but he’s a real criminal defense lawyer.  That’s the good news.  According to the New York Lawyer, Barry has been tapped to lead the New York State Bar Association’s Task Force on Wrongful Convictions. 

The bad news is that this is a New York State Bar Association task force.

The panel is the first initiative of Bernice K. Leber, the new state bar president, who said it is incumbent upon the group to take a leadership role in ensuring that no innocent people in New York are punished for crimes they did not commit.

It’s hard to blame Leber for wanting to take a “leadership role,” but incumbent?  Hardly.  This isn’t their issue, and they have no clout to affect change. 

This Task Force should have been formed by Chief Judge Judy Kaye, and received the imprimatur of government concern for putting innocent people in prison.  Granted, it’s not like the Legislature or Governor care a great deal about what comes out of the third branch of government, as they routinely ignore the judiciary, but it’s the only branch that might potentially care about convicting innocent people.  The others are more likely to shrug it off as a casualty of re-election.

And where would the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers be on this task force?  Silent, as usual, trying to secretly clean up one mess after another to make sure their internal dirty laundry doesn stink up their dues increases.  It doesn’t even rise to the level of irrelevance.

So what’s wrong with the NYSBA taking charge of the issue?

Ms. Leber announced yesterday that 21 members have agreed to serve on the task force with Mr. Kamins, including former Court of Appeals Judges Howard Levine and George Bundy Smith and District Attorneys Charles J. Hynes of Brooklyn and Janet DeFiore of Westchester.

There you go.  How do you “fix” the system?  Put two former judges and two of the biggest self-promoting District Attorneys in New York on the Task Force.  The very people responsible for the problem, or at least perpetuating the problem, and these are the “big names” who are going to ensure that innocent people don’t get convicted.

At the very least, these are the people who are “vested” in maintaining the system, for whom changes and the admission that the system has failed to protect the innocent prove that they have failed to honor their duty.  This is typical of the NYSBA, incapable of comprehending why you don’t ask foxes to guard the henhouse.  The State Bar adores big names in public office.  They are SO important, and the NYSBA loves important people.

I wish Barry the best of luck.  His job may be one step harder than heading a Gitmo tribunal on the integrity scale.  But at least Barry is a real lawyer.